How can you reach a pearl by only looking at the sea?
If you seek the pearl, be a diver:
the diver needs several qualities: he must trust his rope and his life to the friend’s hand,
he must stop breathing,
and he must jump.
Rumi
Month: May 2017
Whatever
If you remember nothing else, always remember this one great secret of spiritual practice: we don’t have to feel any particular way. We don’t have to have special experiences, nor do we have to be any particular way. With whatever arises, whether it’s pleasing or not, try to remember that all we can do is experience and work with whatever our life is right now. No matter what life is and no matter how we feel about it, all that matters in practice is whether we can honestly acknowledge what is going on, and then stay present with the physical experience of that moment.
Ezra Bayda, Zen Heart
Being quiet and listening
Everything that happens to you is your teacher…
the secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your own life and be taught by it.
Polly Berrien Berends, US author
Ordinary everyday wisdom: The grass is green
We have to be patient with ourselves. Over and over again we think we need to be somewhere else, and we must find the truth right here, right now; we must find our joy here, now. How seductive it is, the thought of tomorrow. We must find our understanding here. We must find it here; it is always here; this is where the grass is green.
John Tarrant, Calling on the name of Avalokiteshvara
Monday morning encouragement: Keep going….trust
We come here to search…
to go on searching through silence and meditation,
to get in touch with our inner life.
Christ always said,
Do not worry,
give yourself.
Br Roger of Taize
Sunday Quote: Where God appears
God comes to you disguised as your life
Paula D’Arcy, Writer and retreat leader
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